Eichaed belches



(No Model.)

B. BELOHES.

FIRE ESCAPE. No. 365,230. Patented June 21, 1887.

J)" F f' Wfiinesses Inventor.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

RICHARD BELOHES, OF IIAYMARKET, VIRGINIA.

Fl RE-ESCAPE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 365,230, dated June 21, 1887.

Serial No. 233,196. (No model.)

To (LZZ whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, Rrcrmnn BnLoIIEs, a subject of the Queen of Great Britain, and a resident of Haymarketjn the county of Prince William and State of Virginia, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Fire- Escapes and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming a part of this specifieation, and to the figures and letters of reference marked thereon.

My invention has for its object to provide an eificient means of escape from any room or apartment of abnilding in case of a fire,either through an upper or through a lower floor or to the ground, which means may be at any time availed of by the occupant of a rooin by following a few simple directions posted in some conspicuous place therein.

One of the chief instrumentalities employed in carrying out my invention consists of a flexible ladder,of any preferred construction, concealed within a compartment between the fioor ofone room and the ceiling of the room next below, said ladder being connected at its upper end to thejoists or framing constituting a portion of said compartment, and at the other end directly or indirectly to one or more of the laths composing the bottom of said compartment,and which supports the plastering of the ceiling of the room below in the usual manner. This ladder is rendered accessible from the room above through a removable part ofthe flooring of said room,and from the room below by means of an eyebolt passing up through the ceiling of said lower room and connected directly or indirectly to the lath or laths to which the end of the said ladder is attached, as aforesaid. Each room is provided, preferably,with a staff or rod carrying at its upper end a hook or projection by means of which a firm hold may be taken on the hook projecting from the ceiling of said room, and provided at its lower end with a weighted cross-piece adapted to be employed for effecting communication with the lower room, as hereinafter described.

The several appliances referred to are so constructed and arranged that when the occupant of a room finds the building is on fire,

and that the ordinary means of escape are not available, he can, if he desires to de seend, raise the removable portion of the flooring, and with the staff found in the room, or with his foot,if he prefers, detach the laths forming the bottom of the compartment, drop the flexible ladder through the opening thus formed,and descend into the room below. If escape from that room through ordinary channels is impossible, he may in like manner, with the aid of the appliances found in that room, also descend to the next story, and so on until his safety is insured. On the other hand,should he find that a descent to the room below is impracticable or useless, and that he must, in order to escape, reach a higher floor,he can hook the staffinto the hook depending from the ceiling of his room, and by pulling upon the same release the lath or laths to which the ladder in the compartment above is connected and draw the ladder down through the opening so made, and then by the ladder enlarge the opening sufficiently to admit the passage of his person, and finally climb the ladder, raise the portion of the flooring or trap-door affording communication to the room above and passinto said last-named room, proceeding thence in like manner to a still higher elevation, if found necessary.

By preference, the upper end of each of the ladders is provided with eyes which engage with suitable hooks in the joists or framing, and its lower end is provided with snaphooks, which engage primarily with suitable eyes secured directly or indirectly to the laths of the ceiling below, and which may be detached therefrom when the ladder is let down and engaged with suitable rings or eyes secured to the floor below, and thus hold the ladder in an inclined position and render the ascent and descent of it much easier and certain.

Should it be found impracticable to escape either through the floor below or through the floor above in the manner described, the lad ders found by entering several rooms may be seen red, joined together by engaging the snaphooks and eyes on their respective ends, then secured at the upper end to suitable eyes in the window-casing provided for the purpose, and then dropped out of the window, thus affording a more perilous, but still a practicable a bell, which is adapted to be rung whenever the ladder is disturbed, and thus warn the occupants of adj oining apartments; or, ifdesired,

i the ladder may be so arranged, in connection with an electric circuit formed in part, it may be, by the electrical call devices located within the room, that a disturbance of any one of the ladders will send a signal to the office, if in a hotel, and thus give warning of the fact of use. i

In the accompanying drawings, which show one embodiment of my invention, Figure 1 is a sectional elevation ofabuilding, showing the arrangement of devices in two apartments thereof. Fig. 2 is a similar View showing the manner of using the invention. Fig. 8 is a plan View showing the arrangement of laths, &c., in the bottom of one of the compartments for containing a ladder; Fig. 4, a bottom plan view of the corresponding part of the ceiling below saidcompartment, showing the projecting hook. Fig. 5 is a view of the staff, hereinbefore spoken of Fig. 6, a view showing the connections on the upper and lower ends, respectively, of the flexible ladders; Fig. 7, a detail view showing the batten or cleat, to which the lower end of the flexible ladder is preferably connected when in the compartment, and also the alarm bell.

Similar letters of reference in the several figures indicate the same parts. The letter A indicates an upper, and B a lower, room. 0 represents the floors; D, the joists, and E the ceilings; F, the trap doors or the removable portions of the floors; G, the

flexible ladders; H, the alarm-bell; I, the staff having the hook K at its upper end and the weighted cross-piece at the lower end, as shown. M are the eyes on the upper end of the ladders, and N the hooks with which the said eyes co-operate. These hooks are preferably secured to cross-timbers 0, between the joists D; or they may be secured directly to the j'oists-one on each side of the compartment if preferred.

P are the snap-hooks on the lower ends of the ladders. Normally, these snap-hooks are engaged with eyes Q, secured to a batten, R, which extends across the compartment in which the ladder is contained, as shown in Figs. 1 and 3. The'batten in turn rests upon one or more of the laths forming the bottom of the compartment shown in Fig. 3, and up .through it'passes the screw-shank of the hook or eyebolt S, inserted through the ceiling of the room below, as shown in Figs. 1 and 7. The laths covering the bottom of each compartment are preferably caused to terminate about midway of the width of two adjoining joists, as shown in dotted lines in Fig. 3,

so that they may be the more readily detached when force is applied to them.

It will be noted that if the hook on the end of the staff I is inserted'in the eye of the bolt S and pulled the pressure brought to bear on the batten will cause it to tear off the lath or laths upon which it rests, and enable the batten to be drawn down into theroom below, carrying with it the attached ladder. As soon as the batten can be reached,the operator can,

.by swinging the ladder,- detach the remaining laths and plaster covering the bottom of the compartment, and thus effect a suitable passage-way. By disconnecting the snap-hooks in the batten,and connecting them to the eyes T T in the floor, he can secure the ladder in inclined position, so as to make it easy of ascent, as shown in Fig. 2.

Where the descent from one room to another is desired, the portion of the flooring or trapdoor F is raised, and by the aid of the staff and the weighted cross-piece on the lower end thereof the plaster and laths forming the bottom of the compartment are broken away, so as to allow the falling of the ladder into the room below, all as hereinbefore explained.

It is of course obvious that great variations may be made int-he form and the details of construction of the various instrumentalities which go to make up. my invention without departing from the principle thereof, and while the specific devices shown are useful and practicable, I do not desire to be strictly limited to their use.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new is KOO 1. Thecombination, with adjacent upper and lower rooms of a building, of a flexible ladder arranged within a compartment between said .rooms and means, substantially such as de scribed, by which said ladder may be drawn from said compartment into the lower room, as set forth.

2. The combination, with the adjacent upper and lower room of a building, of a flexible IlC ladder arranged within the space between I ladder arranged within the space between the floo'r'of one room and the ceiling of the adjoiningroom, means for entering the said compartment from the room above, and means, such as a bolt, connected to the ceiling of the lower and lower rooms of a building, of a flexible I room and projecting into the latter, and serv ing as a means to detach aportion of the ceiling, so as to liberate the ladder, as set forth.

4. The combination, with the adjacent upper and lower rooms of a building, of a flexible ladder arranged in the space between the floor of one room and the ceiling of the adjoining room, means for entering the said compartment from the room above, means, such as a bolt, connected to the ceiling of the lower room and projecting into the latter, and serving as a means to detach a portion of the ceiling, so as to liberate the ladder, and an alarm the bottom, of the batten, the flexible ladder secured at one end indirectly or directly to the joists and at the other end to the batten, and means, substantially such as a bolt, connected to the batten and projecting into the room below to effect a hold upon the ladder and 

